The Importance of Communication in Strategic Planning
October 3, 2022
Strategic planning relies on effective communication as an essential part of its development and implementation. To be effective, strategic plans rely on input and commitment from a wide range of individuals who you want and need to be involved and informed. For this reason, you do not want to overlook or underestimate the importance of communication during the process from its inception to the generation of results.
4 Ways that Communication in Strategic Planning is Important
Creates engagement.
Your strategic plan should include how you are going to communicate your message both internally and externally to your team, shareholders, clients, and the community. For effective communication, developing a program can outline what information to share and how to share the information through messages and tactics to help engage others. This includes how to send the best messages possible through the most appropriate channels. By coordinating actions, messages, images, and other forms of communication, you are intentionally establishing how you want to engage with select audiences in support of your brand. At Impact Branding we facilitate strategic planning meetings to ensure engagement is created and maintained.
Controls how your brand is perceived.
The information you share includes specific parts of your company’s strategic plan, as well as other important company information that informs employees of the company’s goals and objectives, business priorities, products, and services. By being deliberate in your communication, you can influence how your brand is perceived, which gives you better control of your brand. One example of this is how your communication helps motivate and guide your team, so their actions align with your vision.
Generates broader input.
While the leaders are the decision makers, it can be beneficial to have input from a larger group. By communicating parts of your strategic plan, you are open to discussing options and getting feedback as a group, along with clarifying your vision, goals, best practices, etc. For example, there are areas in your planning, such as your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, that can benefit significantly from broader input.
Reduce assumptions for better decisions.
When your expectations and planned path forward are known, you and your team are more prepared to make good decisions, such as when critical moments occur. At Impact Branding Consulting, we support our clients in developing strategic themes and implementation maps that are clear, concise yet simple. While the leaders make the big decisions, you do not want wrong assumptions to affect how your team operates and reacts. Assumptions are made when there is no clarity and information is misinterpreted. Many opportunities have been missed because people did not understand what was expected and made assumptions. Often times these assumptions are very expensive.
While some companies struggle with developing and implementing a strategic plan, effective communication throughout the process can create a smoother roll out of your plan. Continued communication as you share updates helps increase harmony and inclusiveness within the company. Additionally, when changes are made to your strategic plan, effective communication helps reduce anxiety and increase buy-in.
Impact Branding Consulting is ready to help you develop and implement your new strategic plan. We understand the importance of effective communication and will assist you in creating a well-designed communication program for your brand.